Dai Dai Ames’ 3-pointer with 12:02 to play gave Cal the lead for good, John Camden led the way with 20 points and the Golden Bears survived a scare from Presbyterian in a 67-57 men’s basketball victory Tuesday night in the opening round of the Empire Classic in Berkeley, Calif.
Lee Dort aided the Cal cause with 15 points and Chris Bell had 14 for the Golden Bears (4-1) in the opener of the four-team, round-robin event that also features co-host UCLA and Sacramento State.
After a tightly contested first 28 minutes in which neither team led by more than seven, Presbyterian’s Carl Parrish gave the visitors a 44-43 lead with a 3-pointer.
Ames countered with his only 3-pointer of the game 15 seconds later, and when Camden drilled a trey of his own, Cal had a 49-44 lead.
Camden, who had 22 points in his Cal debut against Cal State Bakersfield but then totaled just 33 points in his next three games, hit six of his 12 shots on a night when the Golden Bears shot 51% as a team.
Bell also shot 6-for-12 in the game, while Dort dropped in 7 of 9 to complement a game-high eight rebounds.
Ames, Cal’s leading scorer entering the contest at 22.5 points per game, finished with just seven points, while Justin Pippen collected a team-high six assists to go with four points.
In a game that featured just 13 3-pointers, Parrish shot 5-for-11 from deep en route to a team-high 16 points for the Blue Hose (3-4).
Triston Wilson and Jonah Pierce added 13 points apiece, with Wilson finding time for a team-high six rebounds. Josh Pickett chipped in with five points, five rebounds and a team-high five assists.
Having opened Empire Classic play with a 64-62 loss at Sacramento State on Sunday, Presbyterian led Cal by as many as five points in the first half. The Blue Hose outrebounded the hosts 34-30.
